Everybody on the planet would probably agree that the world’s youth are pervasive users of social media. The generation often referred to as the millennials embrace their social platforms and that is why 75% (likely representative of 95%+ of those with access) of millennials use social media on a weekly basis and 55% are on the platforms multiple times daily.

What may come to people as more of a surprise is the fact that the fastest growing segment of social media users aren’t the younger generation, but rather the 45-54 year old age segment where over 55% of the population now have at least one social profile.

With the top social media networks Facebook and YouTube both serving more than one billion monthly users, social has now reached a tipping point where it has completely upended the way many people communicate for business, with friends and with loved ones.

Business Communication Shifts With Social Media

On the business side, companies are turning to social more than ever before. Some of the ways that companies are using social media are:

Build Brand Awareness

Run Contests and Promotions

Networking With Prospects and Clients

Recruit, Hire and Train Employees

While these represent only a small number of ways that companies are using social media, they do reflect a rapidly growing trend of companies turning to social as a leading vehicle for business development and growth activities.

With LinkedIn leading the way with more than 39% of professionals who use social choosing this platform, it shows that the most visible activity by professionals on social media is using it as a networking tool (Acquiring clients and Talent Acquisition).

As a whole, the social trend is changing the way businesses are operating and therefore the way they are communicating with their customers, prospects and employees and as our work lives and professional lives continue to blend together more ubiquitously, the communication affects are also being seen in the way we engage with our friends and family.

This is because the platforms are both widely accessible and they provide immediacy of communication between people. This wide availability is driving a trend of people preferring social over in-person methods to communicate. In fact, 90% of people say they prefer digital methods for not only staying in touch with loved ones but for finding and building new relationships.

In today’s social media rich society, adults are spending 20-28 hours online per week engaging with their more than 275 personal relationships on social platforms. However, these relationships rarely translate offline as only 11% of this group regularly interact offline with their social media relationships.

What Does It Mean For Communication?

What is for sure is that Social in both our business and personal lives is shaking up the way we communicate.

While many people still long for high touch relationships that can be developed from attending conferences or seeing loved ones around the holidays, as a whole our society has become more than comfortable with having the vast majority of our relationships online.

As a trend, social is both disruptive and opportunistic as it allows more touch points in less time, but the relationships created can often be more superficial due to the lack of depth created by these interactions.

In the future social will continue to reshape the communication landscape, however I would like to believe that the 75% mentioned above who desire to spend more time in person with others will grow as volume will give way for depth. Leaving the question, will the technology driving social ever become so advanced that it can truly displace real life engagement? A topic for another day, but quite relevant in a world where virtual and augmented reality are being taken to new heights.

Stay tuned for the second installment of this series next week where we discuss how Mobile Is Changing the way we communicate.